Monday, March 3, 2008

MTV and the Holocaust

There are two short [30 second] videos on a site, Think MTV which concern the Holocaust.

Designed to bring home to younger people, those who watch MTV, the fact that the Holocaust [or, for that matter, any other genocide] happened to people who are not dissimilar to those who watch MTV, they are available here and here.

6 comments:

Jews are "Not dissimilar to you and me". If only we could get this message across. Jews are people and very interesting, entertaining, loveable, likeable and talkative people at that.

Privately, I'm beginning to think that inside everyone there's an NKVD officer just waiting to get out, with another Lenin, Stalin or Hitler waiting in the wings. In my lifetime it's been made a crime to sell or manufacture goods, to trade openly with others, to employ people, to visit another church, to inter-marry, to escape from bondage, slavery, summary execution or prison, or to vote, or take part in certain events, including the Olympics. One needs to ask does the slave trade still exist and do Latter Day Phaoroah's rule 90% of the earths surface. We need to pause and remember that last week 22 North Korean fisherman were executed for straying into South Korea [read as Switzerland] waters. They were returned to N Korea and executed. Yad Vashem should add them to the never ending list of Mankinds Holocaust victims?

May I suggest that Yad Vashem should be the Peoples of the World repository for all injustices and massacres, and not just to document the Jewish tragedy that occurred. [Fairplay]

The signature of this MTV clip is « the holocaust happened to people like us ». How about another clip with a signature like « the holocaust was commited because of the indifference of people like us » which would address America's unwillingness to build a military alliance with Britain and France after WWI (including on the brink of the Munich agreement in september 1938), with pictures of the ordinary people rallying behind Charles Lindbergh in the America First movement ?

I think Ludovics anti-USA comments are unfair. WW1 was the most imbecile undertaking of the 20th century. Germany, France and Britain made absolute fools of themselves. If I was a USA citizen I would have been an Isolationist, or better still a ardent Pacifist.War is the scourge of mankind and the Mother and Father of all Holocausts. The USA for me is great, I love the place, and don't ever criticise it in my presence. I see the USA as a huge wheatfield, the provider of aid and food to less poorer nations, the breeder of top class cattle, horses [ Morgan, Man of War, Seattle Slew] chickens [Rhode Island Reds]and the dicoverer of wonderful medicines such as Pennicillan, and what about Edison with his electric light and electric motors, Ford with his cars and tractors, McCormack with his reaper, Carnegie with his libraries, Luce with he's corny Readers Digest, Rockefeller and Getty with their oil exploration ideas, and if you want action, then Joe Louis, Jack Dempsey and Rocky Marciano were'nt exactly shy at stepping into the ring. The USA is a miracle and a blessing to many. Then again I'm biased - becaus the people of the USA delivered food and aid to the people of England. [the Lend- Lease programme]

I am not quite sure what breeding of Rhode Island Reds has to do with US indifference to Holocaust. It's a bit like saying that we shouldn't say anything bad about Germans because they had Goethe, Bach and Fahrenheit, and btw penicillin was discovered by a Scotsman.

on the other hand while I can see the point of "the holocaust happened to people like us" campaign, "the holocaust happened because our great grandparents have not done enough" proposed by Ludovic seems to be pretty pointless, especially considering MTV's audience.

If you want to watch the original two videos that are posted on the MTV website think.mtv.com, so you can see the context, and the resources they suggest young people use to understand the Holocaust, and preventing another such terrible tragedy, please check out these two links:Subway: http://think.mtv.com/044FDFFFF009BD7C900170098C931/ andFamily Room: http://think.mtv.com/044FDFFFF009BD7C900170098C932/